Human freedom is realised in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself, for the one thing that no-one can be compelled to do by another is to adopt a particular end.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Freedom means choosing humanity as your goal. No one can force you to choose your specific goals.
- In plain terms
- Freedom is choosing your own goals based on humanity.
- What can you take from it?
- Protect the right to choose your own ends.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How free is your choice?
- What ends are universal?
Another view
It ignores social pressure on choosing ends.
More from Immanuel Kant
There is...only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a univ…
Permalink to quote #35 For instance, if you have by a lie hindered a man who is even now planning a murder, you are legally responsible for all the consequences. But if you have stri…
Permalink to quote #37 Even if a civil society were to be dissolved by the consent of all its members (e.g., if a people inhabiting an island decided to separate and disperse through…
Permalink to quote #34
Related quotes
Les heures sont faictez pour l'homme, & non l'homme pour les heures.
Francois RabelaisFrancois Rabelais quote #6 Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant quote #40 Monsters remain human beings. In fact, to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder - just as animals are…
Andrew SullivanAndrew Sullivan quote #1